More Gazans freeze to death amid flooding: Not a Ceasefire Day 64

Storm Byron has caused severe flooding in Gaza, where infrastructure is nearly nonexistent after 2 years of Israeli bombardment. (screengrab)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

(While a “ceasefire” is ostensibly in place, Israel has continued its assault on Gaza without interruption. If Americans Knew considers the war to be ongoing, and in its 794th day.)

At least 14 Palestinians have died in the last 24 hours from plummeting temperatures and collapsing buildings amid Storm Byron in Gaza, Wafa news agency is reporting.

The figure includes at least three children who died from hypothermia.

A number of infants died of hypothermia in the winter of 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, for the same reason it has begun happening now: Israel’s refusal to provide shelter – a responsibility under international law.

Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11, Israel has killed at least 386 Palestinians. Among the dead are at least 136 children. At least 1,018 have been injured. Death toll figures are tentative. More statistics below.

Israel has so far violated the 11 October ceasefire deal in Gaza at least 738 times in 64 days.

GAZA NEWS & HEADLINES:

(For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For more critical context, skim this, this, and this. To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.)

Storm Byron brings a new catastrophic chapter to Gaza – while Israel is safe and dry

When Storm Byron first appeared on weather maps, Israelis were inundated with safety instructions. Israelis had a week to prepare. The storm was a challenge, but it is manageable for those with homes, drainage systems and functioning state services. But under the very same skies, in the besieged Gaza Strip, the forecast was a death sentence.

Storm Byron began Wednesday, and is expected to last through the week. In total, nearly two million Palestinians are sheltering through the storm in flimsy tents or makeshift structures, after the near-total destruction of housing, sanitation and drainage systems.

Moreover, Israel is still blocking aid. More than 6,500 trucks are waiting at the crossings to be let into Gaza with essential winter supplies, including tents, blankets, warm clothing and hygiene materials. As they wait, children are going barefoot and wearing summer clothes in the freezing cold (continue reading here).

“UNRWA has shelter supplies for more than a million people sitting outside the #Gaza Strip that we could bring in. So there’s a political choice to deny us the possibility of bringing that aid in…

But our colleagues are working to the degree that they can, to try to alleviate… pic.twitter.com/jIBwedL3hP

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) December 12, 2025

GAZA HEADLINES:

Daily Thirst amid Tents and Ruins: A ‘Rough and Sandy Path’ for Gaza’s Displaced

OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM HEADLINES:

(Every day, Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem endure dozens of incidents like the ones below, at the hands of Israeli soldiers and/or settlers. For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)

Israel approves plan to legalize 19 West Bank settlements

Israeli settlements in West Bank growing at highest level since 2017: UN

NEWS & HEADLINES ABOUT ISRAEL:

(Israel is a tiny country, about the size of New Jersey, with a population smaller than the US state of Georgia – about 10 million (of which about 20 percent are Palestinians), yet it is in the news constantly. As has been demonstrated again and again, however, mainstream media rarely covers Israel accurately. IAK passes along only factual reporting.)

Israel claims “for now” it will clear Gaza debris

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Israel has agreed “for now” to the US request to clear the 68 million tons of debris it created in Gaza, but will begin by clearing debris in a single pilot neighborhood in Rafah. The initial project is expected to cost tens to hundreds of millions of shekels.

According to the report, Washington expects Israel to ultimately remove rubble across the entire enclave, a task that could take years and cost more than $1 billion. Arab and international actors have so far refused to finance the debris-removal effort, the paper said (continue reading here).

RELATED: UN special rapporteur says Israel should pay for Gaza reconstruction together with key supporters

Displaced Palestinians try to survive in makeshift tents, set up on top of the rubble, in Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza on November 17, 2025. (Khames Alrefi – Anadolu Agency)

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Israel’s Gaza proxy strategy is collapsing

The assassination last week of Yasser Abu Shabab — the 32-year-old leader of the Israeli-backed “Popular Forces,” a militia operating in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip — is more than a lurid gangland hit. His killing at the hands of his own disgruntled militiamen is a clear representation of a policy coming undone.

For months, Israel stitched together a sordid alliance of convicted felons, former ISIS affiliates, and opportunistic collaborators, presenting them as the embryo of a local governance alternative to Hamas in Gaza, while using them to orchestrate starvation and carry out attacks on Israel’s behalf. Now, this attempt to cultivate a network of criminal proxy gangs as subcontractors of its occupation is collapsing into paranoid infighting and bloody chaos (continue reading here).

RELATED: Who Is Abu Shabab? Meet the Gaza Gangster that Israel Armed to Counter Hamas

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ISRAEL HEADLINES:

Israeli strikes hit southern, eastern Lebanon in new escalation

Lebanon received warnings Israel preparing wide-scale attack: Foreign minister

Israeli warplanes fly low over Syria’s Quneitra, as ground forces advance into nearby villages

Israeli forces and Israeli settlers prevent Palestinian farmers from working on their agricultural fields in the town of Beit Ulla, located west of the city of Hebron, West Bank on November 22, 2025. (Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency)

NOTABLE QUOTES: Palestinian resistance is “necessary”

Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, on the situation in Palestine:

We can’t even speak of Palestinian resistance because the term is made to resonate with terrorism. But this resistance is necessary, and it is primarily peaceful. It pushes back – against all odds – on efforts to remove [Palestinians] spiritually, culturally, and physically from their land.

I’m not questioning Israel for what it is, but for what it does. If it doesn’t want to be accused of colonial practices, then it shouldn’t act as a colonial power.

Palestinians aren’t counted as civilians, doctors, lawyers…they are killable and torturable just because they are Palestinians.

States must cut ties with Israel, and businesses must divest – if not, then government officials must be held accountable. Those who have been complicit with Israeli crimes must face justice wherever they are.

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory Francesca Albanese says companies may be aiding an 'economy of genocide' — UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory Francesca Albanese says companies may be aiding an ‘economy of genocide’ ([Lukas Coch/EPA-EFE])

HEADLINES FROM ISRAELI MEDIA:

(Get a glimpse inside this country that is rife with turmoil and contradictions that receives $63 million a day from America.)

Just One Thing Is Stalling Stage Two of Trump’s Gaza Plan: Reality

Several Israeli settlers enter Gaza, try to plant trees before being detained by IDF

OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:

US weighs sanctions against UNRWA

The US is reportedly considering sanctioning UNRWA, the UN agency that serves Palestinians, which would effectively shut down its ability to carry out US dollar transactions and use its banking systems.

The State Department stated that UNRWA “is a corrupt organization with a proven track record of aiding and abetting terrorists*,” adding, “the Trump Administration is currently exploring all options to hold it accountable. Everything is on the table. No final decisions have yet been made.”

William Deere, the director of the UNRWA Representative Office in Washington, DC, said that US sanctions “would be unprecedented and would transgress multiple obligations of a Member State under the UN Charter”.

UNRWA serves approximately 5.9 million registered Palestine refugees.

*NOTE: UNRWA, the United Nations body with a mandate to help Palestinian refugees, has been serving the refugees in exile in Gaza for decades as they wait for their internationally recognized right of return to be activated. After a years-long campaign to dismantle UNRWA, Israel outlawed the organization following an unsubstantiated accusation that 12 employees (out of a staff of 13,000) were part of the October 2023 attack. Israel’s brief dossier, allegedly proving their guilt, offered no compelling evidence. As of July 2025, Israel has still failed to provide evidence to back up its accusations against UNRWA.